Comnav Technology has released the U702 datalink module, an RX/TX data link module that supports the LoRa modulation technique.

Its compact, surface-mounted design and robust electromagnetic compatibility enables easy integration into GNSS systems such as robotic lawn mowers.

With the LoRa modulation technique, the U702 has low power consumption, reception power of 0.025 w, and a working distance up to 1.5 km. It also enhances the ability to protect GNSS systems against various interference — making it possible to have high reception sensitivity, a low error rate, and high reliable data transmission even in harsh environments.

Drone Safety Day (DSD) is returning for its fifth consecutive year on April 29. The annual campaign, designed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), is dedicated to educating the drone community on the importance of flying safely.

The event will highlight the societal, economic, and safety benefits of safe drone operations. DSD will feature in-person, virtual and hybrid events in areas such as education, economics, equity, environment and emergencies.

DSD provides opportunities for businesses, schools and organizations to share how they use drones, as well as kick off new safety initiatives. The 2023 campaign encourages drone pilots and recreational flyers to “Fly RIGHT” by focusing on five safety elements:

• Register your drone
• Interact with others
• Gain knowledge
• Have a safety plan
• TRUST and Train

A full list of events and registration can be found on the FAA website.

The same 91 signers also sent an identical letter to President Biden.

Dear Senators and Members of Congress: 

Last year, many of the undersigned wrote in reflection of the unprecedented opposition to the Federal Communications Commission’s (“FCC’s”) Ligado Order (1) across the vast federal and commercial user base of Global Positioning System (“GPS”), satellite communications, and weather forecasting services. Three years after adoption of the Order, as eight petitions for reconsideration remain pending, (2) we again 

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 (1) Ligado Amendment to License Modification Applications, IBFS File Nos. SES-MOD-20151231-00981, SAT-MOD-20151231-00090, and SAT-MOD-20151231-00091, Order and Authorization, 35 FCC Rcd 3772 (2020) (“Ligado Order” or “Order”). 

(2) More than twenty parties in total signed petitions for reconsideration of the Ligado Order and all of these petitions remain pending before the FCC. See Petitions for Reconsideration of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration; the Air Line Pilots Association, International; the American Road & Transportation Builders Association, the American Farm Bureau Federation, and the Association of Equipment Manufacturers; the Joint Aviation Petitioners; Iridium Communications Inc., Flyht Aerospace Solutions Ltd., Aireon LLC, and Skytrac Systems Ltd.; Lockheed Martin Corporation; Trimble Inc.; and the Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation, IB Docket Nos. 11-109 & 12-340 (all filed on or about May 22, 2020). The ten “Joint Aviation Petitioners” consist of the Aerospace Industries Association, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, Airlines for America, Aviation Spectrum Resources, Inc., the Cargo Airline Association, the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, the urge you to work together with the FCC to stay and ultimately set aside the Order. (3) Critically, this is now necessitated by the crucial, previously unavailable information that was produced at the direction of Congress: the independent technical review undertaken by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (“NAS”) (4) analyzing the potential interference issues related to the Ligado Order. 

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We greatly appreciate your administration’s opposition to the Ligado Order and commitment that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (“NTIA”), on behalf of the executive branch, will continue to actively pursue its petition for reconsideration of the Order. (5) As you know, the pending petitions for reconsideration convincingly demonstrate that the Ligado Order is legally and factually deficient. In the pending petitions, parties showed that the Ligado Order is fundamentally flawed, incompatible with the FCC’s rules, and inadequate in protecting incumbent services from the harmful interference from Ligado’s proposed operations. This substantial documentation, among many other concerns from federal and commercial users, resulted in Congress enacting bipartisan legislation in consecutive years after the FCC’s adoption of the Ligado Order, mandating NAS’s independent technical review and requiring the Department of Defense (“DoD”) to brief federal representatives across the government “at the highest level of classification” on the potential for widespread harm from Ligado’s proposed terrestrial operations. (6) On this basis alone, the FCC should stay the Order in an acknowledgement that it clearly did not account for the full, real-world risk of harm associated with a nationwide terrestrial deployment in the L-band. 

While the pending petitions have a strong likelihood of success on their own merits, the FCC’s rules and the public interest now require the FCC to reconsider the Order in response to the extensive analysis in the NAS Report.7 This new, previously unavailable information presented in the Congressionally-mandated independent technical review confirms that Ligado’s proposed terrestrial operations would cause harmful interference8 at significant ranges to incumbent L-band services across a broad range of deployment scenarios. This is consistent with the well-supported and robustly documented analyses and 

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Helicopter Association International, the International Air Transport Association, the National Air Transportation Association, and the National Business Aviation Association. 

(3) The Commission should also not proceed with any companion rulemakings causing harmful interference to weather forecasting and hydrology services that could result in Ligado deployments, particularly in light of the analysis and recommendations presented in the “Spectrum Pipeline Reallocation 1675–1680 MHz Engineering Study (SPRES) Program Report. See Allocation and Service Rules for the 1675-1680 MHz Band, Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, 34 FCC Rcd 3352 (2019); U.S. Department of Commerce. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. National Environmental Satellite Data Information Service. Spectrum Pipeline Reallocation 1675–1680 MHz Engineering Study (SPRES) Program Report. Silver Spring, MD: NESDIS, October 2020 (public release August 2022). 

(4) National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Analysis of Potential Interference Issues Related to FCC Order 20-48 (2022), https://doi.org/10.17226/26611 (“NAS Report”). 

(5) Letter from Gina Raimondo, Secretary of Commerce, U.S. Dept. of Commerce, to The Honorable James M. Inhofe, ranking member, U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services (June 22, 2021) (reiterating the NTIA’s position opposing the Ligado Order). 

(6) William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act (“NDAA”) for Fiscal Year 2021, Pub. L. 116-283, 134 Stat. 4074 § 1663; NDAA for Fiscal Year 2022, Pub. L. 117-81, 135 Stat. 1541 § 1613. 

(7) These statements are based on the publicly available portions of the NAS committee’s work. In addition, NAS prepared a classified annex, which further details the risks of Ligado’s proposed terrestrial network and additionally warrants FCC action. 

(8) The term “harmful interference” is herein used to describe the results of the NAS Report. In turn, the undersigned believe the results of the NAS Report dictate that the FCC must reach the legal conclusion that Ligado’s operations would cause harmful interference under the FCC’s rules.

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determinations of the federal government, (9) including fourteen federal agencies and departments, (10) and commercial parties (11) alike. Importantly, as concisely stated by DoD and detailed in the NAS Report, “[t]he terrestrial network authorized by [the Ligado Order] will create unacceptable harmful interference for DoD missions. The mitigation techniques and other regulatory provision [sic] in [the Ligado Order] are insufficient to protect national security missions.”(12) 

The unequivocal conclusions of the NAS Report constitute the exact type of previously unavailable information that the FCC’s rules (13) dictate must be addressed on reconsideration. Indeed, NTIA stated on behalf of the executive branch that the NAS Report “offers the [FCC] an important opportunity to reconsider Ligado’s Authorization.”(14) We therefore urge you to work with the FCC to address the harm from Ligado’s proposed terrestrial network to critical GPS, satellite communications, and weather forecasting services by staying the Order, addressing the previously unavailable information contained in the NAS Report, and resolving the pending petitions for reconsideration. 

Sincerely, 

AccuWeather, Inc. 

Aerospace Industries Association 

Agricultural Retailers Association 

Airborne Public Safety Association 

Aircraft Electronics Association 

Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association 

Airlines for America 

Alabama Agricultural Aviation Association 

ALERT Users Group 

Allied Pilots Association 

Air Line Pilots Association, International 

American Geophysical Union 

American Meteorological Society 

American Rental Association 

American Road & Transportation Builders Association 

American Weather and Climate Industry Association 

Arizona Agricultural Aviation Association 

Arkansas Agricultural Aviation Association 

Associated Equipment Distributors 

Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International 

Association of Aerial Applicators Washington 

Association of Equipment Manufacturers 

Association of Marina Industries 

Association of Montana Aerial Applicators 

Aviation Spectrum Resources, Inc. 

BoatU.S. 

California Agricultural Aircraft Association 

Cargo Airline Association 

CNH Industrial 

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(9) See, e.g., National Telecommunications and Information Administration Reply to Ligado Networks LLC’s Opposition to Petitions for Reconsideration or Clarification, IB Docket Nos. 11-109 & 12-340, at 10 n.26 (filed June 8, 2020); U.S. Department of Transportation, Global Positioning System (GPS) Adjacent Band Compatibility Assessment, Final Report (Apr. 2018) (“DOT ABC Report”), https://www.transportation.gov/pnt/global-positioning-system-gps-adjacent-band-compatibility-assessment. 

(10) See Memorandum from Thu Luu, Executive Agent for GPS, Department of the Air Force, to IRAC Chairman (Feb. 14, 2020). 

(11) See, e.g., Letter from J. David Grossman, Executive Director, GPSIA, to Marlene H. Dortch, Secretary, FCC, IB Docket Nos. 11-109 et al., at 6 (Sept. 17, 2020); Letter from Bryan N. Tramont, Counsel to Iridium Communications Inc., to Marlene H. Dortch, Secretary, Federal Communications Commission, IB Docket Nos. 11-109 et al. (Jan. 19, 2022); Update to 2016 Technical Assessment of Ligado User Terminal Interference to Iridium attached to Iridium Communications Inc. et al., Petition for Reconsideration, IB Docket Nos. 11-109 et al. ( May 22, 2020). 

(12) NAS Report at 6, 73. 

(13) 47 C.F.R. § 1.106(c)(2). 

(14) Press Release, NTIA, NTIA Statement on National Academies of Sciences Report (Sept. 9, 2022), https://ntia.gov/press-release/2022/ntia-statement-national-academies-sciences-report.  

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Coalition of Airline Pilots Associations 

CoBank 

Colorado Agricultural Aviation Association 

EarthScope Consortium 

Florida Agricultural Aviation Association 

General Aviation Manufacturers Association 

GeoOptics, Inc. 

George Washington University 

Georgia Agricultural Aviation Association 

Helicopter Association International 

Idaho Agricultural Aviation Association 

Illinois Agricultural Aviation Association 

Indiana Agricultural Aviation Association 

International Air Transport Association 

Iowa Agricultural Aviation Association 

Iridium Communications Inc. 

Kansas Agricultural Aviation Association 

Land Improvement Contractors of America 

Lockheed Martin Corporation 

Louisiana Agricultural Aviation Association 

Marine Retailers Association of the Americas 

Michigan Agricultural Aviation Association 

Microcom Environmental 

Minnesota Agricultural Aircraft Association 

Mississippi Agricultural Aviation Association 

Missouri Agricultural Aviation Association 

Narayan Strategy 

National Agricultural Aviation Association 

National Air Carrier Association 

National Business Aviation Association 

National Cotton Council 

National Society of Professional Surveyors 

National Weather Association 

Nebraska Aviation Trades Association 

NetJets Association of Shared Aircraft Pilots 

New Mexico Agricultural Aviation Association 

North Carolina Agricultural Aviation Association 

North Dakota Agricultural Aviation Association 

Northeast Agricultural Aviation Association 

Ohio Agricultural Aviation Association 

Oklahoma Agricultural Aviation Association 

Oregon Agricultural Aviation Association 

Pacific Northwest Aerial Applicators Alliance 

PlanetiQ 

Recreational Boaters of California 

Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation 

Seafarers International Union 

South Dakota Aviation Association 

Southeast Aero Cultural Fair 

Space Science and Engineering Center at the 

University of Wisconsin-Madison 

Subsurface Utility Engineering Association 

Tennessee Aerial Applicators Association 

Texas Agricultural Aviation Association 

The Airo Group, Inc. 

The Semaphore Group 

Trimble Inc. 

U.S. Geospatial Executives Organization 

University Corporation for Atmospheric Research 

USA Rice 

Vertical Flight Society 

Westwind Helicopters 

Wisconsin Agricultural Aviation Association 

The Mw 7.8 and Mw 7.5 Kahramanmaraş Earthquake Sequence struck near Nurdağı, Türkiye, on Feb. 6. It collapsed several buildings and has claimed more than 50,000 lives. The impact of the initial earthquakes was very severe, but to make matters worse, later in February, a Mw 6.4 tremor struck near Antakya, a city near Türkiye’s border with Syria. This created further damage to infrastructure and claimed more victims.

The Specifics

The United States Geological Survey reports that the earthquake resulted from strike-slip faulting at shallow depths. The earthquake sequence displaced numerous fault segments within the East Anatolian Fault zone. Early estimates indicate about 185 miles of fault length ruptured. Parts of the North Anatolian Fault shifted 10 feet, while segments of the East Anatolian Fault slid more than 30 feet.

Historic Site Suffers

Gaziantep Castle dates back to the second millennium B.C. It has been used in many capacities throughout history, and more recently, stood as a museum for visitors to learn about its rich history. The castle was reduced to rubble in the earthquake. Other historical sites that sustained damage include the Yeni Mosque and the ancient city of Aleppo in Syria.

Earth Opens Up

The earthquake destroyed cities all over Türkiye and northern Syria, but they are not the only areas that suffered dramatic effects. A verdant olive grove in Tepehan, Hatay Province, Türkiye, was completely divided when the ground split, creating a 984-foot-long valley in the middle of the grove. The valley is more than 130 feet deep and has created issues for the 7,000 people that inhabit the area.

Inertial Labs has released the OS3DM, a multi-purpose sub-miniature 3D orientation sensor designed for real-time orientation tracking applications.

The OS3DM contains three types of sensing elements including tri-axial MEMS gyroscopes, tri-axial MEMS accelerometers, and tri-axial magneto-resistive magnetometers. The sensor also has an onboard processor and orientation algorithms embedded, enabling direct integration into systems without interfacing a PC.

Additionally, for PC-based integrations, the system includes a set of libraries that allow users to modify algorithm and sensor parameters to match the needs of individual applications.

The device offers real-time heading, pitch and roll, orientation information and embedded magnetic calibration on hard and soft iron.

Data from the gyroscopes, accelerometers, magnetometers and the internal temperature sensor are gathered and processed by the on-board digital signal processor. The fusion algorithm processes data and outputs the final orientation solution directly from the sensor.

Raw inertial sensors data quaternion data types can be requested. An OEM version is also available.

Follow the cobblestone road through the narrow streets of Leuven, Belgium, and you will likely come out to the medieval-looking main square surrounded by a gothic church, lavishly architected restaurants and the breathtaking city hall, ornamented by hundreds of historical statues. Don’t let it fool you — this culturally rich city produces some of the most cutting-edge technology today, right next to the world-famous Stella Artois beer factory. In fact, Leuven was named as the European Capital of Innovation by the EU Council in 2020.

In this city is the headquarter of Septentrio, a manufacturer of high-precision GNSS positioning solutions and a fast growing company. Septentrio’s recently launched products, including the compact mosaic-X5 GNSS module and AsteRx-i3 GNSS/INS OEM board, are further fueling its growth and market share gains.

There is an intricate link between the city of Leuven, its university, and the high-tech industry that results in such a bubbling cauldron of innovation. The powerful synergy between the university and the city makes Leuven unique. Established in 1425, the Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven) is one of the oldest universities in Europe. It uniquely combines a very high standard of education with openness and inclusiveness.

This combination of excellence and inclusiveness is rather unique, as most top-quality universities have a more exclusive approach. While ranked as one of the top universities by Reuters, KU Leuven is accessible to students from around the world and actively collaborates with industry players in the surrounding area. At the same time, Leuven’s local government enables and supports the university with housing, student life, events, grants and more. With more than 150 nationalities living in Leuven, the city is a hotspot of diversity in terms of cultural background, experience and talent.

As early as 1972, the university established the Leuven Research and Development Tech Transfer office, to valorize know-how. Since then, hundreds of spin-offs have emerged and settled in the Leuven area, including the Haasrode Research-Park, where 12,000 professionals work today and where Septentrio is situated.

Another important player tightly linking KU Leuven and the industry is the IMEC research center. IMEC is the world’s largest independent research center dedicated to semiconductor technology, housing the most advanced wafer fab equipment and employing more than 5,000 researchers. It has more than 4,000 active patents today. As the chairman of its board, I can personally vouch for IMEC as a center of excellence, with the highest standards for quality, fueled by the most talented post-graduates of KU Leuven and professionals from all around the world. For example, IMEC has recently built a new clean room, totaling 12,000 square meters, operating 24/7 to produce next-generation integrated circuit technology and nanoelectronics. Once a new idea or technology is identified, it is sometimes spun-off as a company. That’s exactly how Septentrio started 22 years ago, and it still works very closely with IMEC as a partner and a source of talent for semiconductor and hardware development.

Another key partner of Septentrio is the European Space Agency (ESA), which enables us to be at the forefront with the latest GNSS technology. From the very inception of Galileo, the European GNSS constellation, ESA has given us the opportunity to be involved as the developer of the Test User Receiver, which acquired the very first signals. Septentrio has also been providing reference receivers for the ground segment of the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS), which is Europe’s regional satellite-based augmentation system (SBAS), aimed at providing higher accuracy positioning for airplanes. Working with ESA as a strategic partner allowed us to gain the expertise and insights needed to be the first to market with many key technologies, for example the Open Service Navigation Message Authentication (OSNMA) anti-spoofing authentication on the mosaic module.

Our strategic partnership with ESA and close collaboration with the IMEC semiconductor technology hub has enabled Septentrio to produce mosaic-X5. This compact module is one of the highest performing and resilient GNSS receivers on the market. It is used in a wide array of applications, especially where the position is mission-critical. Examples include a wide variety of autonomous devices, including UAVs that benefit from mosaic’s lightweight and low-power design. The mosaic-H provides accurate heading and is used in applications such as faster set-up and directing of 5G telecom antennas

In short, Leuven offers us an exciting and innovative working environment, as we continue to push out the limits of technology to deliver better solutions to our customers.

On April 15, TrustPoint, an aerospace startup that provides GNSS products and services, launched its first satellite. The satellite, named It’s About Time, enables TrustPoint to demonstrate core technologies as it progresses towards delivering GPS-independent global time and positioning services.

“TrustPoint’s platform is the first commercially funded, purpose-built PNT microsatellite,” Patrick Shannon, CEO of TrustPoint, said. “With this mission, we are expediting the impact of commercial technologies and innovation cycles on the world of timing and navigation, arguably one of the most far reaching and critical satellite services today.”

Maverick Space Systems, a launch services provider and rideshare aggregator, supported the launch of It’s About Time on SpaceX’s Transporter-7 mission out of Vandenberg Space Force base in California. This first mission focuses on testing, calibration and optimization of TrustPoint’s microsat-compatible GNSS payload technology.

After an initial commissioning period, TrustPoint will take control of the satellite and operate it through a series of tests and demonstrations.

TrustPoint aims for its constellation to deliver secure high precision time and positioning services within the next few years. This capability will help fortify existing critical applications and enable the proliferation of nascent use cases in autonomous navigation, national security and smart infrastructure.

Qualcomm Technologies and Xiaomi have verified meter-level positioning in the Xiaomi 12T Pro powered by the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 mobile platform, in Germany.

Accuracy verification tests, including driving tests, were conducted by Qualcomm Technologies, Xiaomi, and Trimble in various scenarios such as open-sky rural roads and urban highways. The companies’ solutions demonstrated meter-level positioning variance at a 95% confidence level.

This level of accuracy in a commercial smartphone is enabled through Qualcomm meter-level positioning for mobile in combination with Trimble RTX correction services. When integrated with Snapdragon mobile platforms, Trimble RTX enhances the phone’s positioning capabilities.

Meter-level positioning accuracy can improve smartphone user experience in several scenarios, including mapping, driving, and other mobile applications. It enables greater accuracy when using ridesharing applications to identify pick-up locations for both driver and rider, fitness applications to track users’ movements, and in-vehicle real-time navigation applications for increased lane-level accuracy with greater map details and more accurate directions.

Topodrone and Rasa Surveying have partnered to advance airborne surveying approaches and accommodate coastal management and monitoring demands in the Philippines.

The approach of Rasa Surveying synchronizes current photogrammetry and lidar practices with the bathymetric data collection capabilities of Topodrone’s Aquamapper. The coupling of orthophotos, above and below waterline point clouds, and bathymetric data aims to support authorities in managing coastlines and enhance the resilience of coastal communities.

“Coastal cities in the Philippines are vulnerable to the effects of climate change and climate-related disaster events,” Maxim Baklykov, Topodrone CEO, said. “However, coastal areas are expensive and challenging to map using conventional technologies. UAV-based surveying of coastal environments allows quickly and accurately to collect shallow water data and details on the land-sea interface.”